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We are ambitious, and we want to change the landscape of bispecific antibody-drug conjugates with unforeseen drugs.
CEO, Founder
CEO, Founder
Arne Scheu is Co-Founder and CEO of Valink Therapeutics. Following his research on protein conjugation technologies at the University of Oxford, he founded Valink Therapeutics as a spin-out of the Department of Biochemistry with the support of the Y Combinator startup accelerator; the company combines his passions for protein engineering and drug discovery. Arne holds a DPhil (PhD) in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, has been awarded the Rhodes Scholarship for Germany, and has been listed as Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2024.
CTO, Founder
CTO, Founder
Irsyad is Co-Founder and CTO of Valink Therapeutics. He completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford as a protein engineer and subsequently worked on several cancer projects in the pharmaceutical consulting sector, which shape the direction of Valink's LiliumX platform. His DPhil work explored modular protein assembly technologies as a precursor to the LiliumX platform.
CSO
CSO
Jose has over a decade of experience in antibody discovery and preclinical development in biotech and pharma. Jose joined Valink Therapeutics from Takeda, where he was responsible for progressing programmes from discovery through clinical development. He was previously at F-star Therapeutics where he led immune cell engager programmes from inception to pre-IND, and beyond into Phase I, spanning multiple internal and external drug candidates, publications, and patents. He also held key platform, technology, and pharmacology development roles within F-star. Before joining Adaptate (acquired by Takeda), Jose also held other scientific roles within AstraZeneca and Cambridge Antibody Technology. Jose has a very keen interest in multispecific antibodies and multifunctional proteins, and the possibilities this type of drugs hold in addressing areas of highly unmet clinical needs.
Head of Operations
Head of Operations
Sandamali possesses a wealth of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, encompassing project management, change management, operations management, and scientific roles. Sandamali transitions to our team from Novartis, where she oversaw the construction and management of cutting-edge laboratories. As a scientist, Sandamali worked at ADC Therapeutics and Amgen. During this period, she led cross-functional teams in the successful execution of intricate projects spanning operations, assay development, pre-clinical studies, and technology transfers.
Senior Scientist II
Senior Scientist II
Nikitas brings expertise in the fields of antibody discovery, cell biology and immunology with nearly 10 years of experience across academia, biotech and pharma. Nikitas joins Valink Therapeutics from Takeda where he led the development of a novel bispecific T cell engager programme. Previously, in his role within Adaptate (acquired by Takeda), he focused on the design and development of functional assays to assess and improve the function of various immune engagers. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge where he worked on establishing primary pancreatic 3D organoids and studying their tumorigenicity and immune rejection using in vivo models such as humanised mice.
Senior Scientist I
Senior Scientist I
Inês joins Valink Therapeutics as a cell biologist with academic and industry research expertise in the areas of inflammation, immunology, oncology, and neuropathology. Her passion lies in supporting the development of novel therapeutic concepts, and she brings to the team vast experience in assay development and optimization. Inês holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford, and prior to joining Valink Therapeutics, she worked as a discovery scientist at Gammadelta Therapeutics and Takeda contributing to the development of allogeneic cell therapies against solid malignancies.
Principal Research Associate
Principal Research Associate
As Senior Research Fellow, Reto provides an extensive background in cellular and molecular biology. He previously worked at Imperial College London and spent over 10 years at the Francis Crick Institute and Cancer Research UK, where he characterized the role of DNA and protein damage in cancer development. He gained his PhD from the University of Basel, while working at the Roche Center for Medical Genomics, and was subsequently awarded a Research Fellow Award at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France.
Senior Scientist I
Senior Scientist I
Ben completed a PhD at Queen Mary University of London and subsequently worked as a research associate at King’s College London. His previous work has focused on the characterisation of protein structure, dynamics and interactions.
Senior Scientist I
Senior Scientist I
Georgi holds a PhD from Imperial College London, where he worked on computational solenoid protein design. He previously contributed to Irsyad's paper establishing Valink's precursor platform, and is part of Valink's computational biology team.
Protein Scientist I
Protein Scientist I
Saraswathi Ponnam holds an MRes in Molecular and Structural Biology from UCL. She has since undertaken the role of a Research Assistant at King's College London, specializing in the meticulous examination of structural and functional aspects of cardiovascular proteins and cardiac muscle regulation. Her methodology involves a wide array of biochemical and biophysical techniques, contributing towards multiple drug discovery projects.
Research Associate
Research Associate
Javier holds an MS in Biomedical Physics from the Complutense University of Madrid. He supports Valink's technology development since 2021, with a particular interest in protein science and laboratory automation.
Junior Research Associate
Junior Research Associate
A recent graduate of UCL, having studied BSc Bioprocessing of New Medicines (Science and Engineering), Nvard has experience with mammalian cell culture, bioprinting, and bioprocess scale down.
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Intern
Intern
A recent graduate from Imperial College London with a BSc degree in Biochemistry. Experience in protein expression and purification processes as well as maintaining mammalian cell cultures.
DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR
Alex is a Cofounder and CEO of Diagonal Therapeutics and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in Atlas Venture. During his 20+ year career in biotechnology, he served as COO of Dragonfly Therapeutics, CDO of Morphic Therapeutic, VP of Therapeutics at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, and Associate Director of Drug Discovery at Biogen. Alex is an author of over 100 patents and manuscripts. He is an Associated Editor of the mAbs and serves on the Board of Directors of the Antibody Society. He has received an Advanced Certificate for Executives in Management, Innovation and Technology from MIT Sloan School of Management, a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University, an M.Sc. in Molecular Biophysics, and a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
DIRECTOR
DIRECTOR
Alex holds a PhD degree in computational chemistry and MBA from Mannheim Business School. Alex brings more than 10 years of experience in the biotech space, being a co-founder of drug development startup himself and then moving to the VC side. He successfully invested in Biotech and Medtech startups from a VC fund RBV Capital and from CVC arm of tier 1 reinsurance company SCOR.
OBSERVER
OBSERVER
Rob is a cofounder of London-based Hoxton Ventures and is currently cofounding H Tree Capital, a specialized seed tech:bio fund. He has over thirteen years in the VC industry and was previously a product manager at Google in Silicon Valley. He holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland. His notable investments include Babylon Health, Preply, Spacelift.io and several dozen others.
Hoxton Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm based in London and investing in European technology startups that can scale into large, global winners. It focuses on startups that either disrupt existing industries or invent entirely new market categories. It was the first institutional investor in Babylon Health, Darktrace and Deliveroo, and its portfolio companies have grown to an aggregate value of over $32 billion. Hoxton typically invests between $500,000 and $5 million into pre-seed and seed stage companies, and follows its capital through the life of the company. For more information please visit https://www.hoxtonventures.com.
OBSERVER
OBSERVER
Georgia is passionate about working closely with startup founders to realize their vision through focused development, operations and fundraising resource and strategies. A seasoned M&A professional, Georgia has a deep network of corporate and institutional investors to leverage in order to help early stage companies scale.
Georgia is the founding partner of Magnet Ventures, seed investor and board member of INNFOS (exited), investor of Cloudminds (exited), seed investor of AI-Biotech companies: Valink Therapeutics (formerly LiliumX), Flux Biosciences, Regard (formerly HealthTensor), Atom Bioworks.
ADVISOR
ADVISOR
Charles Conn is a seasoned business builder and investor. Before co-founding Monograph Capital, a life sciences venture firm, he was CEO of Oxford Sciences Innovation, a £600m deep science venture firm formed in partnership with Oxford. Charles is a technology entrepreneur and former public company CEO (Ticketmaster/Citysearch/Match.com).
He serves as Chair of Patagonia, and was previously CEO of the Rhodes Trust; before that he was senior advisor to the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. He began his career at McKinsey & Company, where he was a Partner. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School, Boston University, and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
ADVISOR
ADVISOR
Innovative strategy, partnerships and market shaping executive with 15+ years of leadership experience in U.S., European, and global healthcare environments (NCDs, neuro, onco). Proven record of designing and executing strategies that simultaneously shape commercial and reputational ambition; driving high-impact campaigns that catalyze healthcare system changes; and fomenting large-scale partnerships that connect the dots between influential stakeholders and improved patient outcomes. Yale Ph.D, Fulbright Scholar, former NIH/WHO, and trade group veteran with deep networks across UN, EU and US political, academic, and health tech spheres.
Known for creative, high-impact campaigns that underpin P&R decisions; and driving innovative partnerships that address health disparities, particularly between pharma and tech.
ADVISOR
ADVISOR
Keith Mostov is a Professor of Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He also founded or co-founded several biotech companies, including Novellus DX. Prof. Mostov was a Rhodes Scholar, received his MD from Weil-Cornell Medical College and PhD with Nobel Laureate Guenter Blobel at The Rockefeller University.
Subsequently, he was a Whitehead Fellow and Principal Investigator at the Whitehead Institute, before moving to UCSF. He has worked on polymeric immunoglobulins, as well as epithelial polarity and morphogenesis.
Contact Us
Imperial Translation & Innovation Hub
84 Wood Lane
London
W12 0BZ
England
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Imperial Translation & Innovation Hub
84 Wood Lane
London
W12 0BZ
England